By Manuel Perez: Welterweight contender Antonio Diaz (46-5-1, 29 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Javier Castro (19-2, 17 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Saturday night on the undercard of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Luciano Cuello light middleweight bout at the Plaza de Toros, in Tijuana, Mexico. The final judges’ scores were 95-94, 96-93 and 96-93. I personally had Castro winning the bout by at least three to four rounds because of his much better work rate. However, the judges seemed to be more impressed with Diaz’s harder shots.
Castro, 25, was at a slight disadvantage in the fight because he was moving up from the light welterweight division. Castro was docked a point in the 8th for landing a low blow.
In rounds one through three, Castro controlled the bout using his better speed and work rate to do the better work. Diaz, 32, caught Castro against the ropes in the opening round and unloaded on him with a six punch flurry as Castro covered up. Castro came back, however, and landed several nice shots to the head. The 2nd round was very close with both fighters canceling each other out by matching punch for punch.
In the last 10 seconds of the round, Castro unloaded on Diaz with a four punch combination to seal the round. Diaz started well in the 3rd, getting the better of Castro with hooks to the body and head. Castro came back in the 2nd half of the round, hitting Diaz with fast one-two combinations.
Diaz came back in the 4th round, landing some huge right hands and lefts to the body. Castro tried to get back in the round, but Diaz jabbed him from the outside in the remaining seconds.
Rounds five and six were very close with both fighters trading shots with each other. Like in the other rounds, Castro landed the more numerous shots, but Diaz landed the far harder punches. In both rounds, Diaz landed a couple of hard right hands that snapped Castro’s head back. Castro, who previously had never fought above light welterweight, looked uncomfortable with the big right hands that Diaz was hitting him with and backed off.
Castro came back strong in the 8th round, throwing nonstop punches and outworking Diaz by a significant margin. Diaz was able to open up with some huge body and head shots, but it wasn’t enough to overcome all the shots that Castro had landed in the round.
In the 9th round, Castro was deducted a point for a low blow. He had been warned previously for hitting and hurting Diaz on a couple of other occasions, but due to Castro’s constant body work, he was unable to keep from occasionally landing a punch or two low.
The point deduction really hurt Castro, because Diaz was having a good round and ended up winning the round by a 10-8 score. In the 10th, Castro came back with a good round, landing a lot of fast shots. For his part, Diaz seemed content to play keep away, using lateral movement to run out the clock.